Herald Scotland - robbie dinwoodie From there the bomb was transported via Malta, which accords with the prosecution case at the Lockerbie trial. He stressed: He stressed: “The Lockerbie explosive came from Tripoli to Malta and was then shipped from Malta. I want to emphasise that the shipment came from Malta.”

Source links regime with outrage

robbie dinwoodieShare

28 Feb 2011

A SECOND source has come forward to claim that the Libyan regime was involved in the Lockerbie terror plot and that the man convicted of carrying it out, Abdelbaset al Megrahi, threatened to admit this unless Colonel Gaddafi helped secure his release from a Scottish prison.

The former second-in-command to Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal has claimed they and Libyan intelligence co-operated on a number of plots.

Atef Abu Bakr has told the influential international Arabic newspaper Al Hayat that the fall of the Libyan regime will lead to revelations about Gaddafi’s involvement in many atrocities.

He said the Libyan dictator personally sanctioned the use of the Abu Nidal group to organise the 1988 aircraft bombing in co-operation with his own intelligence service, for which Megrahi was an officer. The two organisations then assassinated many of those involved to cover their tracks.

He claimed Megrahi promised on the night before his extradition to keep silent about Gaddafi’s involvement but later “threatened to expose the whole process unless the Libyan authorities made efforts to secure his release”.

Bakr claims the attack on the Pan Am jet was in retaliation for the US bombing raid two years previously on Benghazi and Tripoli in which Gaddafi’s daughter died.

He said of the bomb manufacture and delivery on to the flight: “I can assure you categorically that the two processes were the outcome of a partnership between the Abu Nidal group and the security of the Libyan Jamahiriya.

His version of events has the bomb being built by Abu Nidal’s experts in Southern Lebanon and then being sent to Tripoli via Brazzaville, the capital of Congo. From there the bomb was transported via Malta, which accords with the prosecution case at the Lockerbie trial.

He stressed: “The Lockerbie explosive came from Tripoli to Malta and was then shipped from Malta. I want to emphasise that the shipment came from Malta.”

Megrahi threatened to get "revenge" and "spill the beans" on Gaddafi's involvement in the bombing if he was not "rescued" from prison, Libya's former justice minister Mustapha Abdeljalil said in an interview with British newspaper The Sunday Times.

Abdeljalil said Megrahi's threat led to Gaddafi setting up a $80,000 a month fund to be spent on lobbying and legal costs in the fight for the convicted bomber's release.

The former justice minister claimed that Megrahi warned Gaddafi, "If you do not rescue me, I will reveal everything. If you don't ensure my return home, I will reveal everything."

Abdeljalil quit his job as Libya's justice minister as the country spiraled into turmoil after a popular uprising against Gaddafi. He spoke from the Libyan city of Benghazi, where he was setting up an interim government in case the current regime fell.

The former lawmaker said Gaddafi ordered Megrahi to carry out the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 while it was flying over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988, killing 270 people - mostly Americans.

Megrahi was convicted for murder over the bombing and sentenced to life in a Scottish prison.

But the threat to reveal Gaddafi's involvement worked, with the Libyan leader securing his release in August 2009 on compassionate grounds because he was suffering from cancer. Megrahi is still alive, despite claims at the time of his release that he only had months to live.

"[Gaddafi and his officials] were dedicated to ensuring that Megrahi should return to Libya even if it cost them every penny they had. It was costing Libya £50,000 a month being paid to him, his legal team and family members for visitations and living expenses," Abdeljalil said, adding that up to $2 billion was spent on the case.

Susan Cohen, 72, of New Jersey, who lost her 20-year-old daughter Theodora in the bombing, said, "This adds weight to what I've always known - that Gaddafi was behind it all along. The irony now is that after this, Megrahi might wish he was back in prison in Scotland, and the irony is that he might even outlive Gaddafi."